World Laboratory Day: Laboratory medicine in transition

World Laboratory Day takes place annually on April 23. It is intended to draw attention to the work in laboratories and the achievements of laboratory employees. MEDICA-tradefair.com takes the day as an opportunity to highlight current trends that continue to shape these work environments. These trends will also be a main focus of  the MEDICA LABMED FORUM at MEDICA 2024.

One of the scientific organizers of the MEDICA LABMED FORUM is Prof. Stefan Holdenrieder, Director of the Institute of Laboratory Medicine at the German Heart Center Munich. In an interview, he gave us an outlook on the topics that will be addressed at this year's forum.

In analytics, Holdenrieder sees greater automation and the use of robotics as important developments in the laboratory in 2024. Particularly in large laboratories, they will lead to further standardization and higher throughput. The new European in-vitro diagnostics regulations (IVDR), which affect both laboratories and manufacturers in the laboratory sector, are also becoming increasingly important.

Laboratory 4.0, with the aim of fully networking, digitalizing and automating processes is gaining momentum: "Smaller networked point-of-care devices are increasingly being used," reports Holdenrieder. "This makes it possible to bring good laboratory diagnostics directly to patients and react more quickly."

However, decentralized use requires better digital networking and will also play a major role in telemedicine. Small and medium-sized hospitals would also be able to offer good basic care around the clock, while detailed special diagnostics would continue to be carried out in the large laboratories. This concept could counteract another negative trend: the shortage of skilled technical staff and the ageing of laboratory doctors.

Holdenrieder sees major changes for laboratory diagnostics in the interpretation of results and data. "Until now, we have looked at individual values, but in future we will be summarizing increasingly complex data patterns. The field of laboratory medicine is evolving from pure analytics to data science. Collaboration with biostatisticians is becoming increasingly important in the laboratory."

Machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) offer great opportunities for laboratories, but "laboratory data will have to be processed differently in the future and additional quality controls will have to be incorporated."

The aspect of quality assurance is a top priority for all laboratories anyway. Nevertheless, according to Holdenrieder, it becomes clear during interlaboratory comparisons "that for many parameters in the laboratory, the comparability of the data depends on the methods used for measurement." Treating physicians are often not aware of this problem. The standardization of laboratory data is therefore of great importance for future storage in an electronic patient file, so that no false conclusions are drawn due to differences in the methods or units used.

AI is a key topic among the current trends at the MEDICA LABMED FORUM. Particularly great advances are possible where very specific diagnostics are involved. As an example, Holdenrieder cites a leukemia laboratory in which AI is already being used for the morphology of blood smears, immunophenotyping, cytogenetics and molecular genetics. His verdict: "AI achieves outstanding results at breathtaking speed, which are very close to the level of proven specialists. This expertise can also benefit hospitals on the periphery and significantly improve the quality of diagnostics there".

Other trending topics at the MEDICA LABMED FORUM will be automation, robotics, the IVDR and the shortage of skilled workers. The aim here is to show that "the working world of laboratory medicine is attractive, technically demanding and forward-looking - and offers great opportunities with new qualifications and working time models, especially for women."

At the "Young Scientists" day, young scientists will present their research and current developments in the field of analytics and data processing. Young start-ups also have their place at the LABMED FORUM. This year, the focus is on new diagnostics for diseases in older people.

With oncology and cardiology, the MEDICA LABMED FORUM will also cover two clinical subject areas. On the one hand, the latest findings on liquid profiling in the sense of highly sensitive diagnostics of circulating tumor DNA in the plasma of people with cancer for early detection, therapy selection and monitoring of minimal residual disease will be presented and discussed.

The topic of cardiology focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of adults with congenital heart defects (EMAH). "This affects around 400,000 people in Germany. They underwent successful surgery for a congenital heart defect as a child and require intensive medical care for the rest of their lives," says Holdenrieder. Experts from the German Heart Center Munich will report on their work. This will highlight the interdisciplinary orientation of the laboratory - and its importance in patient care and research into new diagnostic approaches.

In the run-up to World Laboratory Day, MEDICA-tradefair.com conducted a short survey of companies in the laboratory sector on current trends. Julia Räder, Product Manager at diagnostics manufacturer DRG Instruments GmbH, points out the increasing number of large laboratories, which are also a result of large investment groups entering the laboratory business. She also mentions the specialization of smaller laboratories and increasing documentation requirements. She cites fewer innovations and new parameters as well as a reduced range of tests for parameters with low sample volumes as an impact of the IVDR.